The fight against doping : back on track with blood / Martial Saugy, Neil Robinson, Christophe Saudan. - (Drug Testing and Analysis 1 (2009) 11-12 (November-December); p. 474-478)
- Special Issue: Advances in sports drug testing
- PMID: 20355161
- DOI: 10.1002/dta.93
The efficiency of the fight against doping in the future will evolve drastically in several ways. Although, during the last ten years, testing of urine samples out of competition opened the door for intelligent testing, the real shift toward improvement of the system was the adoption of the blood matrix as the biological sample of choice. When collected properly, blood allows the establishment of individual haematological andhormonal profiles, which are currently the basis of the ‘biological passport’. A simpler collection procedure also permits the evaluation of the prevalence of doping in specific populations of athletes, as is typically done in epidemiology, to establish a risk assessment.
Thanks to modern research tools that combine analytical techniques (mass spectrometry) with informatics, the biological signatures resulting from the administration of a doping substance can indeed be studied atmany differentmolecular levels. Molecular mapping and fingerprinting will certainly be at the heart of all diagnostic sciences in the future and the fight against doping is no exception.